by Fred Hudson

After the initialsuccess of the first Roosevelt Raceway International Trot in 1959 where arecord crowd of 54,000 fans attended, the following year, 1960, Yonkers Racewayintroduced the United Nations Trot which was held October 20, 1960 in which TieSilk would win in front of 23,000 fans. The Netherlands Haros II would be seventhand the great French trotter Jamin would be eighth after making a break at thestart in the mile and quarter race.

Going into the 1961season both tracks started competing against each other for the European horses.They would end up having their battles appear in the papers and court rooms andfinally having the NY Harness Racing Commission stepping in and setting uprules and regulations regarding International racing policies for both tracks.

With the start of the1961 season Yonkers Raceway announced that they had signed the French trottingmare Masina to race in the United Nations Trot that would be held in April(three months before the Roosevelt Raceway International Trot). Masina had justwon the Prix d;Amerigue beating the best European trotters.

The problem was that theowner of Masina had also signed a contract with Roosevelt Raceway to race inthe International Trot giving Roosevelt an option that had not yet expired.

Roosevelt Raceway tooklegal action against Yonkers Raceway and served the track with a show causeorder. Roosevelt contended that Henri Levesque, the owner of Masina, had signeda contract with Roosevelt giving them until June 15 to invite Masina to race inthe Roosevelt International Trot which would be held on July 15.

If they exercised thatoption the French mare would have to race at Roosevelt before she could race atany other track in the United States.

Roosevelt Racewaywithdrew its suit and allowed the French mare to race in the Yonkers United NationsTrot. The mare finished seventh after hooking wheels. She made a secondappearance the following week in the Yonkers National Championship in which shewas involved in an accident and ended up finishing last.

In June of 1961 the NewYork Harness Racing Commission made rules as to what defined an Internationalrace and also prohibited the offering of special payments to lure choicehorses.

Both tracks wouldcontinue to be competitive against each other in their search for the besthorses in the world. The feud between the two tracks officially ended in Julyof 1965 when Roosevelt Raceway extended a invitation to then Yonkers Raceway’sPresident Marty Tananbaum to race his mare, Our Own, in the RooseveltInternational Trot representing New Zealand. Mr. Tananbaum gladly accepted theinvitation and his mare would finish sixth in the 1965 International.